Sir Thomas Phillipps: Henry St. George, Visitatio Heraldica Comitatus Wiltoniae, A.D. 1623 : Transcription by Phillipps, ca. 1827

RLIN ID No.
NYGG04-A11

Main Entry
St. George, Henry, 1581-1644.

Title
Wiltshire visitation.

Title
Visitatio heraldica comitatus Wiltoniae, A. D. 1623 : transcription by Sir Thomas Phillipps, with extensive additions, including pedigrees [autograph manuscript], ca. 1827.

Physical Description
1 v. (210 p.) ; 32 cm.

Historical/Biographical Note
Sir Thomas Phillipps was an English antiquary and collector. He began collecting while at Rugby School and at Oxford. On inheriting his father’s estate of Middle Hill in Worcestershire, he embarked on a career of collecting books and manuscripts. His collection eventually contained over 60,000 manuscripts and included many in Greek and Latin and eastern languages as well as English and Continental manuscripts. In the 1820s Phillipps made trips to the Continent where he continued to collect, frequently buying up entire estate libraries at auction. He printed a number of these manuscripts at the press he established on his estate. He was also a keen genealogist and copied and annotated a number of manuscript pedigrees and visitations, some of which he later printed at Middle Hill.

Scope and Contents
This manuscript represents Phillipps’s autograph copy of the manuscript documenting the 1623 Visitation of Wiltshire by the College of Heralds (British Museum Harley MS 1165), with additions by him to the year 1650. It includes some pedigrees collected by the Rev. Thomas Leman of Bath.

General Note
Title devised by cataloger.

General Note
Blue flexible wrappers with calf back; laid in modern folding cloth box with spine lettered in gilt: Phillipps Private Papers/Autograph Pedigrees/Wiltshire Visitation.

General Note
The manuscript was printed at the Middle Hill Press in 1828.

Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchase; Sotheby’s auction no. 3243, Lot 0062, London; 2003 /12/02.

Provenance
Formerly owned by Martin Schoyer of Spikkestad, Norway, who purchased it from the dealer H. P. Kraus of New York City. Previously owned by W. H. Robinson Ltd of London and Joan Corder, F. S. A. (Corder MS 55). It would have been one of the many Phillipps manuscripts sold by Sotheby’s starting in 1886.

Names
Leman, Thomas, 1751-1826.
Phillipps, Thomas, Sir, 1792-1872.
Schoyer, Martin, former owner.
British Museum. Dept. of. Manuscripts. Harley 1165.
College of Arms (Great Britain)
Middle Hill Press, publisher.

Subjects
Heraldry. England. Wiltshire.
Visitations, Heraldic. England. Wiltshire.
Wiltshire (England). Genealogy.

Genres
Pedigrees. England. Wiltshire. 17th century.
Genealogies. England. Wiltshire. 17th century.

Occupation (as reflected in collection)
Genealogists. England.
Heralds. England.

Location
Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022-1098.